


The Arc of Ascension, Fragment e10,1: A Conversation Over Ice Cream

by bzarcher, solarbird



Series: Of Gods and Monsters [40]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Background Relationships, Bisexual Character, Bisexual Female Character, Canon Lesbian Character, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Cleverness, F/F, Friendship, Gen, Ice Cream, Lesbian Character, Oasis (Overwatch), Science, Talon Efi Oladele, Talon Emily (Overwatch), Talon Lena "Tracer" Oxton, Talon Orisa (Overwatch), Trans Female Character, Trans Sombra (Overwatch), awareness, manners
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2019-06-09 04:33:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15259551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bzarcher/pseuds/bzarcher, https://archiveofourown.org/users/solarbird/pseuds/solarbird
Summary: The new gods have risen, ready, at last, to grapple with a world of heroes. Moira O'Deorain herself has been reborn, now made one of the creations her previous self meant to rule, and she works with her wife - the goddess Mercy - and their ensemble of new deities to remake the world, toimproveit... for everyone.Efi Oladele, having turned the tables on everyone, enjoys ice cream with Orisa and several of her new friends.Of Gods and Monsters: The Arc of Ascensionis a continuance ofOf Gods and Monsters: The Arc of Creation, a side-step sequel toThe Armourer and the Living Weapon. It will be told in a series of eddas, sagas, interludes, fragments, texts, and cantos, all of which serve their individual purposes. To follow it as it appears,please subscribe to the series.





	The Arc of Ascension, Fragment e10,1: A Conversation Over Ice Cream

_[Mid-May, 2078]_

Lena took another spoonful of her toffee chip, then pointed the empty utensil at Efi. “So - when’d you figure it out?”

“A few months after I got home from the workshop,” Efi explained between bites of strawberry rosewater and honey vanilla swirl. “I dropped a multi-tool while I was fixing -”

“Wait,” a third voice interjected as Sombra stepped out of what had seemed to be empty air, a cone of dark chocolate in her hand. “Wait, I want to hear this!” 

Efi blinked with surprise. “Did you just use light polarization camouflage shielding to sneak up on us with ice cream?”

“Yes,” Danielle observed as she put a spoon into her raspberry sorbet, “she does that. Efi - this is Sombra. Sombra, this is Efi.”

Efi held out her free hand. “Hello! So - you’re... like us?”

Sombra nodded as she shook it, her expression one of mild surprise. “Something like that. I’ve heard a lot about you.” Her grin turned a little crooked as she sat down. “How’d you know it was light polarization? Most people would figure I teleported like speedy over here.”

Efi shook her head as she took another bite from her dish. “I used a teleporter to get here - and then Miss Lena used her abilities. I know what that feels like, now. You didn’t feel that way when you appeared. It was more... slippery.”

“Huh.” Sombra nibbled at a bit of her cone before it could melt. “That’s interesting. So - you were gonna tell us?”

“Hang on,” Oilliphéist said, appearing in a puff of black smoke. “I wanted to know, too.” She dragged a chair over with one hand, the other holding a cup of brown butter almond. “Hello! I’m Emily.” 

Efi blinked. “You’re... like Danielle?” 

“Very much so,” Emily said with a smile, then kissed each of her fellow Weapons on their cheeks. “Sorry, we hadn’t been introduced yet, but I’d been keeping an eye out for you as well.”

Efi looked around the ice cream shoppe, then leaned closer, her voice dropping to a whisper. “Were _you_ kidnapped, too?”

Emily laughed, reaching out to reassuringly cover Efi’s hand with her own. "Oh, oh, oh, no - I _begged_ for this. To be made _whole_. Like her, yes, but not unwillingly. I begged, pleaded, whatever I could do to get it. And I am _so happy_ I did.”

Lena smiled, calling around the room, “So - unless anyone _else_ wants to join us…” She paused for a moment, and when no one else spoke up, she winked at Efi. “You had a story to tell.”

Efi sat back, taking in everyone around her, then leaned back in her chair until her cheek could rest against Orisa’s side. “Okay! So, I was working on adjusting one of Orisa’s servos when it kicked back on me and sent a whole set of attachments flying - and I caught them. All of them, right out of the air.”

“Huh.” Lena put her spoon down in her bowl. “Bird mom didn’t think you’d start seein’ things that fast.”

“I had that impression,” Efi said as she straightened up in her chair. “It _did_ sound like my age made things a bit less predictable.” She finished the last bite of her strawberry ice cream, then put the spoon back down in the valley between the last of her vanilla and the scoop of chocolate fudge at the end of her sundae dish. “I decided to see if I could do it again - and after the fourth time in a row, I knew something else was going on.”

Danielle nodded along with the story. “And the rest?”

“The first time each of you took my hand,” Efi said with a smile. “I felt... a bit excited? Happy. Like I’d just opened a present!” 

“We were both pretty excited when you woke up,” Lena agreed. “We really wanted it to go well for you.” 

Emily grinned at her wife. “You’re excited for _everyone_ waking up, darling.”

“Well, okay,” Lena admitted with a blush. “Yeh, you’ve got me.”

“So you felt a little something,” Sombra said to gently drag them back on topic, “when you touched some of us.” 

“Yes!” Efi grinned, excited to finally be sharing her project. “Not very strongly - not at first - and never with the other people at the workshop. Just Miss Danielle, Miss Lena, and Doctor Ziegler.”

Sombra nudged Efi with an elbow. “Listen to _her!_ So polite!” She winked at the girl as she flushed, then bit into her waffle cone. “You’re part of the family now, basically. You can _probably_ just use first names.”

“Manners are important,” Efi insisted. “My mother told me I have to set a good example for Orisa!” 

“They _are_ important,” Danielle agreed, “but as Sombra said... you are part of our family, too.”

“Okay... Danielle,” Efi said hesitantly, then grinned at the approving smiles from around the table. “So the longer I noticed the changes, the more I wondered if I might have experienced something more than just my own excitement or nervousness. I decided to begin measuring my own body’s bioelectric field, and comparing it to others!”

“Ahh,” Sombra nodded. “So you noticed the differences there... and then decided to see if Orisa could be modified to pick it up as well?” 

Efi nodded. “It’s all electricity, isn’t it? Conduction, reception, transmission. It just took a bit of time to find the right sensitivity so Orisa could understand me - and then I started to understand her!”

“It was very exciting,” Orisa confirmed with a wink, putting her hand up for another stage whisper. “Efi stayed up _well_ past her bedtime!”

“I was _very excited!_ ”

“So you knew... _all_ of that,” Lena said with a grin, “and you decided to pull that cute an’ innocent act the whole time?”

“I am _very_ cute and innocent,” Efi said with wide eyes, then had a fit of giggles before she became a bit more serious. “But I had to know... not just _what_ , but _why_.” 

“Oh,” Sombra grinned as she polished off the last of her cone, “I _like_ you.” 

Danielle gave Sombra a mild look. “Be careful, Efi. She is a _very_ bad influence.”

Sombra made an offended noise, and the whole table of goddesses joined in the laughter. 

_She gets to be a child, and she gets to grow up. Have a good life._

Lena smiled as she watched Efi attack the last of her ice cream, then shared a look with Danielle as she reached beneath the table to take her hand. 

_Yeah. I think she’s gonna be just fine._

**Author's Note:**

> This is the tenth instalment of _Of Gods and Monsters: The Arc of Ascension_. To follow this story, [subscribe to the series via this link](https://archiveofourown.org/series/972024), rather than to the individual works.


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